A mother-of two is raising her dead sister’s five children. Jannine Hargreaves tells how she copes with the constant chaos

The most precious piece of jewellery Jannine Hargreaves possesses is a pretty
silver bracelet, given to her as a 40th birthday present by her younger
sister, Justine. Nothing odd in that — except that she received the surprise
gift on November 14, four weeks to the day after her sister died.

In her final months, Justine had chosen the bracelet and asked her oldest
friend, Victoria Tierney, to deliver it. “That was Justine,” says Jannine,
“Even when she was suffering, she was so thoughtful, so kind.”

Justine was just 38 when she died from cervical cancer last October. Jannine
is now caring for her sister’s five children — Jade, 17, Sam, 10, Nathaniel,
9, and six-year-old twins Coral and Crystal — as well as her own, Lloyd, 12,
and Lacey, 2.

To say that life is chaotic is an understatement: Jannine has moved in with
Justine’s children in Accrington, Lancashire, to spare them